Gates of Kaliningrad: eight city gates of Koenigsberg. Gate of Königsberg

After a couple of hundred meters, a huge bulk of a two-tiered bridge appeared in front of me, and a little to the right I could see the building of the former Holländerbaum station, which has survived to this day. Now the Kaliningrad Regional Customs is located in this building.

But, before stepping onto the bridge, I decided to go to the edge of the embankment to admire the view of the Pregol River, still ice-bound and powdered with snow shining in the sun.

The weather was quite clear and the opposite shore was clearly visible. There, proudly rising above the low warehouse buildings, one could see the powerful towers of the Friedrichsburg Gate. It is these gates that are the next stopping point of our journey.

After taking a few shots that could be seen on the opposite bank of the gate, I headed for the rumbling two-tiered bridge (former Reichsbahnbrucke). The original bridge was blown up by the retreating Germans in 1945, but already in 1959-60. The bridge has been completely restored and rebuilt. The unique mechanism, which unfolds a 1000-ton colossus in just 2.5 minutes, was irrevocably destroyed, so the modern bridge acquired a new, already vertical, adjustable mechanism, which still works properly to this day.

It is worth noting that here, not far from the bridge, at the intersection of St. General Butkov (formerly Ausfalltor Straße) and the Marshal Baghramyan Embankment (formerly Holländerbaum Straße), there used to be another gate - Hollanderbaum, which was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century.

After crossing the bridge, turn left onto St. Portovaya (former Friedrichsburger Straße), where, among numerous warehouses and auto centers, are located, of interest to us, Friedrichsburg Gate(German Friedrichsburg Tor). Looking ahead, I will say that these gates are not related to the city gates of Koenigsberg, since they did not lead to the city, but to a small fort, but, nevertheless, they are beautiful and interesting in their own way.

Long ago, in 1657, on the left bank of the Pregel, to protect Königsberg from the sea, as well as control the waterway to the Pillau fortress, by order of the Elector of Brandenburg Friedrich Wilhelm, the Friedrichsburg fortress was laid, and the gate of the same name, built a little later, was carried out throughput function through the protective rampart of the fortress.

The fortress was designed by the Prussian engineer and mathematician Christian Otter (1598-1660). He owns the invention of the Dutch system of building fortresses, which he successfully applied in the construction of the Friedrichsburg fortress, surrounding it with a wide moat filled with water. The construction of the fortress was led by Georg Neumann. The first commandant of the Friedrichsburg fortress was the Dutch engineer Colonel Gerhard von Belgulm.

The shape of the small fortress resembled a regular square, protected from four sides by earthen bastions. Inside the fortress there were barracks, a prison, food and weapons depots, a customs service and a small church. In 1858, the modernized fortress, which received the status of a fort, became part of the Second rampart fortification. At the same time, according to the project of Friedrich August Stüler, the brick Friedrichsburg Gate was attached to the fort from the side of the city.

The gate, striking in its heaviness, was built of burnt clinker bricks in the Tudor style - the English neo-Gothic movement. The vaults of the through passage are made in the traditional barrel style, and the casemates located on the sides of the gate are in the cross style.

If you take a closer look at the gates, you will see that the walls, as well as complex architectural decorations above the entrance arch, are made of bricks of various colors and shapes, which indicates the high skill of the builders of the 19th century. On the front facade of the gate, the black Gothic inscription "Friedrichsburg" and the high relief of the Prussian eagle have survived to this day.

To the left and right of the arched passage are massive round towers, decorated with decorative battlements. The names of the towers are unusual and interesting: "Ruby", "Pearl", "Diamond" and "Smaragd (Emerald)". Each tower has six round and four lancet windows - loopholes.

On August 23, 1910, the fort ceased to be a military facility, and was transferred to the management of the Imperial Railway, and 10 years later the bastions were completely dismantled, and the ditches were filled up to make room for the railway lines of the freight station and not interfere with the construction of the railway bridge.

After the Great Patriotic War, the gates were badly damaged and were under threat of demolition, but in 1960 they nevertheless received the status of an architectural monument, but this did not save them from further destruction and abandonment.

And now, quite recently, finally, a bright period has come in the post-war history of the gate. The collapsing gate was taken under its wing by the Museum of the World Ocean. More than 20 million rubles were allocated under the Federal Target Program "Culture" for restoration and giving the gates its original architectural image. The difficulty lies in the fact that for the restoration of the gate, a special brick is required, purchased in Latvia, and the necessary figured elements are cut out of it on the spot.

Alexander Feshchenko, director of Azimut-Stroy LLC, which performs the restoration of the gate, says that, in comparison with the Royal Gate, things are much more complicated here, since 46 types of different bricks are required for numerous elements.

Upon completion of all work, the gate will receive long-awaited guests already in the status of a branch of the Museum of the World Ocean. It is planned that museum squares will be dedicated to the history of shipbuilding, a center for the restoration of underwater archaeological finds will be opened, the square in front of the gate will be decorated with a beautiful fountain, and there are plans to open a mini-cafe.

In conclusion of the story about the Friedrichsburg Gate, I want to note one more interesting historical fact. In 1697, Peter the Great visited Friedrichsburg Fortress to learn artillery skills.

Brandenburg Colonel von Sternfeld, who acted as a teacher, highly appreciated his student. Upon his return to Moscow, Peter I received a certificate stating: “ Pyotr Mikhailov to be recognized and honored as a perfect in throwing bombs, a careful and skillful firearms artist»

For the last time looking around at the snow-covered gates, between the towers of which the rays of the winter sun peeped, I headed further along the street. Portovoy and, soon, turned onto the street. Serpukhov (formerly Knochen Straße), which in turn took me to the street. Bagration (formerly Alter Garten Straße).

The following gates on our route are located on this street − Brandenburg(German Brandenburg Tor) are the only of the seven surviving city gates of Königsberg that still perform their transport function to this day.

The name of the gate comes from the Order Castle Brandenburg on the Frisching River, the ruins of which are still preserved in the modern village. Ushakovo, Bagrationovsky district. It was through these gates that the cobbled road from Königsberg went towards Brandenburg Castle.

The date of construction is 1860. The author of the project for the facade of the Brandenburg Gate, as well as the Friedrichsburg Gate, is a talented military engineer Friedrich August Stüler. The gate became part of the Second rampart fortification and served to allow pedestrians and vehicles to pass through the earth rampart at the Brandenburg bastion.

These gates, made in the neo-Gothic style, are slightly more lightweight in architectural terms, in comparison with the rest of the city gates. On both sides of the two symmetrical arched openings for passage, there are small casemates with loopholes. Previously, these premises served for security and customs services, and now they house the well-known store "Frames and Frames" in the city.

The walls of the casemates are made of clinker bricks; the plinth is lined with granite slabs using the square technique, and the facades are decorated with carved stone and small plastic.

Above the two arched arches, the gates are decorated with very beautiful "vimpergas" - Roman pediments with faceted turrets - "phials".

The pediments along the edges are decorated with stylized sandstone flowers - "crabs", and the tops - with "crucifers". The half-turrets are interconnected by battlements.

"Tympanums" (fields of pediments) are decorated with high reliefs from the side of the city, from the other side - coats of arms. The author of sculptural plastics is Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer.

High reliefs of the gate depict portraits of military generals, Russia's allies in the fight against Napoleonic France: military engineer Hermann von Boyen (left) and Lieutenant General Ernst Ludwig von Astaire (right).

Herman von Boyen was born in the city of Kreuzburg (modern village of Enino, Bagrationovsky district) and is known for taking an active part in the wars against Napoleon, fought in the battles of Leipzig, Lyon and Paris. With his participation in Prussia, a system of conscription was introduced. On the site of his family estate, there is still a forgotten and dilapidated monument to this outstanding person ...

The second high relief belongs to Ernst Ludwig von Aster, also an active participant in the battles with Napoleonic France. However, the work on the project of fortifications of the Second rampart brought him the greatest fame.

During World War II, the Brandenburg Gate suffered relatively little damage. In the post-war period, they were used as a warehouse and were in general neglect. And only in 1960, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the Brandenburg Gate was declared a monument of urban planning and architecture of republican significance ...

The bright, but still cold February sun illuminated the ancient walls of the gate - silent witnesses of the rich history of Königsberg. The soaring pediments looked beautiful against the blue sky, probably the same as a century and a half ago, riveting the eye of a casual passerby.

I wanted to look endlessly at the gates and the line of cars passing through them, but my path lay further - towards the South Station, where, a hundred meters from the gates, on a section of an old wall, there are memorable high reliefs informing us that here in the 19th century they were laid to rest. professors - rectors of the Königsberg University "Albertina".

This is the philosopher Christian Jacob Kraus (1753-1807) (German Christian Jacob Kraus), the anatomist and physiologist Karl Friedrich Burdach (1776-1847) (German Karl Friedrich Burdach), whose name is given to the nerve bundle in the posterior columns of the spinal cord, which provides touch and deep sensitivity of the lower extremities and lower parts of the trunk and philologist Liudvikas Reza (1776-1840) (German: Liudvikas Gediminas Rėza).

By the way, in the high relief of the famous Lithuanian poet, an unforgivable mistake was made in the name (LudviGas instead of LudviKas), but let it be on the conscience of the author of this commemorative sign. I will also add that in Kaliningrad in 2000, in the square of the Lithuanian sister cities at the intersection of st. Chestnut Alley and Victory Avenue, the monument to Ludvikas Reza, sculptor A. Sakalauskas, was solemnly opened.

And in the meantime, bypassing the beautiful building of the South Station, I went out to Kalinin Avenue and headed for the next gate on our route - Friedland. Also in the third part, I will introduce you to one more city gate of Königsberg - Sackheim.

To be continued...

Koenigsberg was surrounded by seven bastion fronts, i.e. faces of a polygonal fortress belt, with the inclusion of bastions in them with an earthen rampart connecting them. The lunettes, cavaliers, redoubts and separate reduits built into the shaft and carried outside it were to become auxiliary defensive structures. The system also included ditches fed by water, both branches of the Pregel and other reservoirs. Gates were separate elements of the defensive bypass.

All the city gates of Koenigsberg were locked at night and guards were posted. Entrance to the city from dusk to dawn was forbidden. The only exceptions were doctors and priests.

Gate building history

On April 5, 1843, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered the creation of a second rampart around Koenigsberg. The project was entrusted to the head of the engineering corps, Lieutenant General Ernest Ludwig von Aster.

Ludwig von Aster, developing the project of the Second rampart fortification of the city of Koenigsberg, took into account not only the military purpose of the gate, but also the aesthetic one. All city gates were made in one of the directions of the English neo-Gothic - the Tudor style. Special attention was paid to the sculptures that adorned them.

The construction of the city gates began on August 30, 1843 from the bookmark of the Royal Gate. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV himself took part in this event. Construction was completed with the consecration of the Friedland Gate in 1862.

At the end of the 19th century, the construction of the fort belt "Night Featherbed of Koenigsberg" began, which was carried out to a considerable distance from the borders of the city.

The second rampart fortification of the city of Koenigsberg lost its military significance.

A decree of August 25, 1910 ordered to exclude a number of defensive structures from the fortification system, including the city gates of Koenigsberg.

During World War II, many city ​​gates of Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad), were partially damaged.

In the post-war years, they were not even considered as an architectural monument and vegetated in neglect and oblivion. Some were given over to a vegetable warehouse, others to workshops. This continued until 1960, when, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, they were nevertheless declared under state protection.

But the main revival of the city gates of Koenigsberg took place in 2004. Then, for the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad, the Royal ones were restored.

Now these are seven sights of the city. Museum expositions are located in some gates, cozy cafes in others.

Royal

King's Gate (German: Königstor) located at the intersection of Frunze Street and Litovskiy Val. Originally, the Kalthof Gate was located on this site.

In 1717 they were demolished, and during the entry of Koenigsberg into Russia, Russian engineers rebuilt on this site.

These gates were originally called Gumbinnen, since it was in Gumbinnen (Gusev) that the road that went through them led. In 1811, the gates were renamed Royal, after the name of the street on which they were located (German: Königstrasse).

At the end of the first half of the 19th century, modernization of the city fortifications began in Königsberg. Then the old gates were demolished, and new ones were built in their place, which have survived to this day.

Solemn laying of the new Royal Gate took place on August 30, 1843 in the presence of King Friedrich Wilhelm 4, and construction was completed in 1850.

Koenigsberg built in pseudo-Gothic style and outwardly resemble a small castle. The author of the gate project was General Ernst Ludwig von Aster, the architect Friedrich August Stüler was responsible for the decoration of the facades, the bas-reliefs were created by the sculptor Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer.

royal gate consist of one passage 4.5 meters wide, on the sides of which casemates are located. From the side of the city, the casemates had windows and doors, and from the outside, there were embrasures.

The edges of the roof are framed with battlements. Four octagonal turrets are located at the corners of the building (turrets are round in old drawings), and four more octagonal turrets are located on the high central part of the King's Gate.

The facade from the side of the city is decorated with bas-reliefs of King Ottokar 2 of the Czech Republic (left), King Frederick 1 of Prussia (in the middle) and Duke Albrecht 1 of Prussia (right). Their family emblems are placed under the figures. Above the niches are the coats of arms of the Prussian lands - Samland and Natangia.

At the end of the 19th century, ramparts lost their defensive functions, and at the beginning of the 20th century royal gate were sold by the War Department to the city government.

Later, in the 20th century, the ramparts that flanked the gates were torn down as they interfered with the increased vehicular traffic. Thus, they became a free-standing, island structure. Now they serve as a kind of triumphal arch.

During the Great Patriotic War, during the bombing of the city, the gates received minor damage.

After the war, King's Gate was used as bookstore No. 6, which closed in the 1990s. After being used as a storage room.

In 2004, restoration work began, during which the building of the Royal Gate was completely restored, and their lost heads were returned to the bas-reliefs of Frederick 1, Duke Albrecht 1 and Ottokar 2.

In 2005, the Royal Gates became a symbol of the celebration of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad.

On November 10, 2005, a message to posterity was immured into the wall of the Royal Gate - a glass case with the book "The City of My Dreams". One of the entries in the book was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 2.

Since 2005, the Royal Gate has been a branch of the Museum of the World Ocean. There is an exposition dedicated to the visit of Koenigsberg by Peter the Great.

From the side of the city	main facade
bas-reliefs	From the outside s

Rossgarten

Rossgarten Gate (German: Rossgärter Tor) located at the intersection of Chernyakhovsky (Wrangels) and Alexander Nevsky (Cranzer Allee) streets, next to Vasilevsky Square and the Amber Museum.

The first gates that were located on this site were built at the beginning of the 17th century during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Koenigsberg.

In 1852-1855, according to the project of the director of fortification construction, Irfügelbrecht, and engineer-lieutenant von Heil, new, more modern ones were built on the site of the first city gates.

The project for the facade of the gate was developed by the secret supreme building councilor August Stüler, head of the Technical Building Deputation in Berlin. Stüler himself worked out the design of the facade, giving it pronounced Gothic forms. The author of the sculptural decorations is Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer.

Rossgarten Gate have only one passage 4 meters wide. On both sides, on the sides of the passage, there are three casemates. Thus facade of the Rossgarten Gate consists of seven openings. From the side of the city, casemates have windows, from the outside of the city there are embrasures. Above the facade of the gate there is a row of battlements, divided into two halves by an elevated central part.

On the sides, the central part is framed by two high octagonal turrets. Above the entrance is an observation platform, fenced with battlements. To the right and left of the entrance are arcades, consisting of arches resting on columns. On the sides of the main arch are two portrait medallions depicting the Prussian generals Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

From the outside, the passage is covered with a blockhouse, from which it is possible to conduct circular rifle and artillery fire, and a guardhouse, from the embrasures of which it was possible to conduct frontal and flank fire. The guardhouse had swing gates. In front of the guardhouse there is a ditch across which a drawbridge is thrown.

After the war Rossgarten Gate were restored and began to be used as a cafe-restaurant "Sun Stone".

From the outside	From the side of the city

Rossgarten Gate	medallion-portrait of Scharnhorst	medallion-portrait of Gneisenau

Zackheim

Sackheim Gate (German: Sackheim tor) located at the intersection of Moskovsky Prospekt and Litovsky Val Street. The first gates that were located on this site were built at the beginning of the 17th century during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Koenigsberg.

construction Sackheim Gate, which has come down to our time, was built in the middle of the 19th century.

They have one passage in the form of an arch, which served as a checkpoint at the entrance to the city.

The gate building was built in neo-gothic style from red bricks of different degrees of firing. Walls and decorative details are also made of it. There are four towers at the corners of the gate: two are round on the side of the city and two are octagonal on the outside. From the side of the city, they were decorated with bas-reliefs by Johann David Ludwig Yorck and Friedrich Wilhelm Bülow, from the outside - with the image of a black eagle.

At the end of the 19th century, ramparts lost their defensive functions, and at the beginning of the 20th century Sackheim Gate were sold by the military ministry to the city government, and they were left as a monument of architecture, in the form of a triumphal arch. Some of the casemates were demolished and houses were added to the gates. Transport stopped running through them, which was allowed near the gates, while disrupting a significant part of the defensive rampart.

During the Second World War, the gate was not damaged. After the war, they began to be used as a warehouse, which function they performed until 2006.

In 2006, the restoration of the gate began. The Sackheim Gate was to house the federal state institution "Center for Standardization and Metrology", its laboratories and a small museum where one could see scales and other ancient measuring instruments.

At the moment (April 2011), no work is being done, and we can only dream of a museum.

From the side of the city	From the outside
From the side of the city	From the outside

Friedland

On the outskirts of the city, not far from the cattle yard, at the exit from Austrian street (Kalinina avenue), and its intersection with Schönflisserallee street (Dzerzhinsky street), a rampart with a gate was built to cover the city from the south, near the road that led to the city Friedland (Pravdinsk).

The first mention of Friedland Gate (German: Friedländer Tor) refers to 1657, it was in this year that Prussia was freed from vassalage from Poland.

The fortifications were well equipped with artillery, but these fortifications were seriously tested only during the Napoleonic wars. The attempt of the French to immediately take Koenigsberg failed, but this fact is an exception, since the first rampart ring showed its failure when the enemy attacked.

And already in 1857-1862, the construction of a new second defensive ring around the city began. The old ones were dismantled and new ones were built in their place in 1862, and they were the most fortified in the system of the second shaft ring. The Friedland Gate was built under the guidance of the architect F. A. Stüler (1800-1865).

The Friedland Gate is made in the Neo-Gothic style of red brick of varying degrees of firing. Walls and decorative details are also made of it. The gates had a large number of casemates with windows and embrasures. They had an escarpment wall (the inner wall of the rampart) with a sentinel path behind it. This wall runs along the park and has survived to this day.

The casemates of the gate had not only gun embrasures, but also cannon embrasures. The gates had two passages with lancet portals, and the portals had architraves repeating their shapes. The facade part of the gate from the side of the city is divided vertically by five buttresses, ending at the level of a decorative jagged parapet with pointed gable turrets - pinnacles with phials. There are only three such turrets on the outer side of the gate.

To create chiaroscuro and greater architectural expressiveness, the turrets and battlements of the parapet are decorated with decorative niches with multi-lobed and two-centered arches. Under the crenellated parapet, an ornament of repeating crosses stands out, which in ancient architecture is called bezant.

From the side of the city, the gate was decorated with the figure of Friedrich von Zollern, who at the beginning of the 15th century was the commander of the Balga fortress. On the outer side of the gate is an image of the fifteenth Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen.

The author of the sculptures was Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer (1812-1864). The date of creation of the sculptures, discovered during the restoration, is 1864.
Currently, the sculptures have been restored (the Feuchtwangen sculpture - in 2005, the Zollern sculpture - in 2008).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Friedland Gate they wanted to demolish it, but the gate, along with the entire second shaft bypass, was sold by the War Ministry in 1910 to the city administration, and they were left as an architectural monument.

After the First World War, the Friedland Gate was closed to traffic and became the entrance gate to the park, which was created on the site of the defensive structures of the southern front. And the road to Friedland (the current Dzerzhinsky Street) began to pass on the side of the gate, while part of the defensive rampart was demolished.

During World War II, the Friedland Gate had to become a military objective. Upstairs, there are still traces of trenches and pits for artillery pieces. During the storming of the city in 1945, the gate was practically not damaged. What can not be said about the Soviet period. In the post-war period, the gates were empty for a long time, then a warehouse was located in them. Unique ceramic bricks were repeatedly whitewashed, painted, trees sprouted on the roof of the gate, and as a result, the gate collapsed.

In 1988 Friedland Gate were transferred to the park named after the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol (now Yuzhny Park). With donations from private individuals and public organizations, the Friedland Gate was restored and a museum of East Prussia was opened in them.

During the cleaning of the park's ponds, various objects were found, which made up the first exposition of the museum. Here is a collection of weapons of the 19th and 20th centuries, a collection of wine and beer bottles, blacksmith and carpentry tools, bricks with animal paw prints and masters' marks.

Museum at the Friedland Gate founded by Alexander Georgievich Novik. Initially, the museum was actually private and had no official status. Only in 2002, the museum was officially established by order of the director of South Park.
Now the Friedland Gate Museum is the only municipal museum in Kaliningrad, whose exposition is dedicated to the history of pre-war Koenigsberg.

Permanent exhibitions of the museum:

“Fortified city, garden city. A virtual walk through the streets of old Koenigsberg”: an opportunity to see what the city was like in 1895-1910s, to look into shop windows.
"Koenigsberg in the first half of the 20th century": the life of the townspeople in the first half of the 20th century, familiar things in an unusual form, famous trademarks.

"Civilization begins with sewerage": the history of water supply and sewerage from ancient times to the present.

From the side of the city	From the outside

sculpture by Friedrich von Zollern	sculpture by Siegfried von Feuchtwangen

museum

Brandenburg (Berlin)

Brandenburg (Berlin) Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) located at the intersection of Bagration Street (Alter Garten) and Yuzhny Lane.
The first city gates on this site were built in 1657. They were intended to protect the city in the southwestern section, and the road leading to the Brandenburg castle (now the village of Ushakovo).

Due to scarce funding, wooden gates were built with a roof that abutted against an earthen rampart. For reliability, a ditch was dug in front of them and filled with water.

18th century, by order of the Prussian king Friedrich 2, Brandenburg Gate were demolished, and in their place, to cover the city from the south (now Suvorov Street), a massive brick building was built.

They had two spacious passages, garrison guard rooms, service, utility and storage rooms.

In 1843, restoration work was carried out, the gate building was almost completely rebuilt.

The pediments became pointed, with cruciform sandstone flowers and stylized leaves.

On the gates there are sculptural portraits of Field Marshal Boyen (1771-1848), Minister of War, participant in the reforms in the Prussian army, and Lieutenant General Ernst von Aster (1778-1855), chief of the engineering corps, one of the authors of the Second rampart fortification.

Brandenburg Gate- the only of all the Konigsberg city gates that have survived to this day, performing their former transport function. The building of the Brandenburg Gate has been restored and is protected by the state as an architectural monument.

From the outside	From the side of the city

ausfalian

Ausfalsky (Checkpoint) gate (German: Ausfalstor), located at the intersection of Guards Avenue (Deutschordenring) and Gornaya Street.

The first gates on the site of the current ones were built in the twenties of the 17th century during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Koenigsberg.

In 1866 ausfal gate were completely rebuilt in the Brick Gothic style. Due to the fact that they were intended only for pedestrians, and were less significant in relation to the rest of the city gates, the architectural design of the gates was an order of magnitude poorer than the rest of the city gates of Koenigsberg.

Designed new ausfal gate architect Ludwig von Aster.

The Ausfal Gate has only one passage, to which a staircase and a narrow bridge led from the outside of the city. On the sides of the passage are casemates with loopholes for frontal and flank fire. The passage is blocked in an arc by a beam arch, which is decorated with a platband with teeth. The lateral outer walls of the gate leading into the moat are lined with granite slabs.

Nothing is known about the appearance of the gate facade from the city side, since the gate facade is covered with earth, and its photographs or drawings have not been preserved. Above the passage is a combat platform with a battlement parapet. From the very beginning, the gates crashed into the shaft and were actually below ground level.

At the end of the 19th century, the ramparts of the city lost their defensive functions, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the Ausfal Gate was sold by the War Ministry to the city government, and the only gate passage was laid.

During the Second World War ausfal gate were converted into a command post for military units. The vast inner spaces of the gate were divided into separate compartments by concrete walls. The passages between the compartments were closed with hermetic protective doors.

After the war in ausfal gate were used as a warehouse, later - as a bomb shelter for a nearby police school, and even later a sewage collector was located in them.
In 1993, on the upper covering of the gate, which is located flush with the level of the carriageway of Gvardeisky Prospekt, an Orthodox chapel of St. George was built, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who died during the assault on Koenigsberg.

Spring 2007 Ausfal and Railway Gates were transferred to the Kaliningrad History and Art Museum. It is planned to restore the gates and place museum expositions in their premises. Together with the monument to 1200 guardsmen and Victory Park, the gate should become part of the military-historical complex.

ausfalian	sewer collector
Orthodox chapel of St. George

Steindamm

Steindamm Gate (Steindammer thor), they were located in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Victory Square. They were demolished in 1912, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became obsolete, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.

They had two wide passages for vehicles and two passages for pedestrians. To the right and to the left were three barracks.

Like most of the city gates of Koenigsberg, the building Steindamm Gate was built in the Gothic style.

Arched gate architraves had an arrow-shaped form. The edges of the roof were completed with teeth. Turrets rose along the edges of the pedestrian portals. In the center of the gate, in a niche, there was a statue of King Friedrich Wilheim 4.

Hollanderbaum

Hollanderbaum gate (Hollanderbaum thor) were located near the intersection of General Butkov Street (Ausfalltorstr) and Marshal Baghramyan Embankment (Hollanderbaumstr), next to the two-tier bridge over the Pregolya River.

The gate was named after the area in which it was located (Hollenderbaum, "Dutch tree"). The gates were demolished at the beginning of the 20th century, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became outdated, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.

Tragheim

Tragheim Gate located in the area of ​​Gorky Street (Waldburgstr). They were demolished in 1910, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became outdated, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.

Railway

Railway gate (German: Eisenbahnhof Tor) were built in 1866-1869 by architect Ludwig von Astaire.

The railway gates had two spans (northern and southern), decorated with lancet arches. On the sides of the railway spans there are casemates with loopholes, and on the outside there is a room for guards.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Deutschordenring Street (German: Deutschordenring, now Guards Avenue) was laid over the gate.

After the Second World War, traffic on the branch passing through the gate stopped due to the construction of a new one. The old tracks were finally dismantled only in the 1990s, now a footpath to the Victory Park has been laid in their place.

Railway

It was a huge project. Unfortunately, not everything has survived to our days.

And now it's time to explain why the title of the post mentions the gate.
In 1626 - 1634, ramparts were erected, which surrounded Koenigsberg from all sides. The fortification consisted of several bastions and semi-bastions, as well as 9 gates. In addition, in 1657, the powerful Fort Friedrichsburg was founded from the sea.
And two centuries later, King Frederick William IV issued a decree on the start of the construction of the Second rampart, in general repeating the contours of the previous one. The powerful towers of the Don and Wrangel, the Kronprinz defensive barracks and the Astronomical Bastion are being built, and new fortified gates are being erected in place of the previous ones. The construction of the King's Gate was the first to begin in 1843, and the construction was completed with the construction of the Friedland Gate in 1862.
We did not manage to visit all the gates: (But I will still show you some of them :)

brandenburg gate

There is a plaque on the wall.

And here are the gates themselves. A tram line passes through them.

The Brandenburg Gate was built around 1860. The façade was designed by the architect August Stüler. On the side directed towards the city, two portrait medallions by the sculptor Wilhelm Ludwig Stümler have been preserved: on the left - military engineer Field Marshal Hermann von Boyen, on the left - General Ernst Ludwig von Aster, a participant in the Napoleonic wars and the author of the second rampart fortification of the Königsberg fortress. The name of the gate can be interpreted in two ways: the first - through them there is a road to the Brandenburg order castle (now the village of Ushakovo); the second - the same road leads to the German land of Brandenburg. But they have nothing to do with the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

which of them is a field marshal, and which is a general, I'm confused))

This is a view of the gate from the other side. By the way, pay attention to the tram line - this is a narrow gauge railway. And the trams run quite normal dimensions. According to my feelings, it shakes on the way in them two times more than in Moscow :)
A bit from the history of the Koenigsber tram. In the 19th century, due to the growth of the city, there was a need for public transport. In May 1881, the first horse tram route was opened in Königsberg (in the same year, an electric tram was already launched in Berlin). Konka was owned by joint-stock companies. Compared to the droshky, the cost of a horseback ride was much more democratic: from 10 to 20 pfennigs (depending on the distance) versus 60 pfennigs for one passenger, 70 pfennigs for two, 80 for three, and marks for four passengers on a droshky.
And in May 1895, the first trams entered the Königsberg streets. In 1901, the city bought all the tram lines (with the exception of the lines in Hufen) and began to electrify them.

The strange structure ahead is the bridge.

The next gate is Friedrichsburg.


The Friedrichsburg Gate is the only historical gate in Kaliningrad that did not lead to the city of Königsberg, but to the fortress of the same name. In 1657, at the direction of the great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, the Friedrichsburg fortress was built on the southern bank of the Pregol River. It was built according to the design of Christian Otter and topographically had the shape of a square. On its corners there were four bastions with euphonious names - Ruby, Emerald, Almaz and Zhemchug. In the quadrangular courtyard, surrounded by earthen ramparts, there were various buildings: the commandant's office, barracks, zeighaus, barns, a guardhouse, a prison and a church.

During the stay in 1697 of the Great Russian Embassy in Königsberg under the name of constable Peter Mikhailov, the Russian Tsar Peter I passed artillery science in the Friedrichsburg and Pillau fortresses. The training was conducted by a Brandenburg specialist in this field, Colonel von Sternfeld. He noted the abilities of his 25-year-old student. Upon his return to Moscow, Peter I received a certificate that said: "Peter Mikhailov should be recognized and honored as a careful and skillful firearms artist, perfect in throwing bombs."

In the middle of the 19th century, during the construction of new ramparts around Königsberg, the Friedrichsburg fortress was rebuilt into a fort of the same name. In 1852, a brick gate was erected at Fort Friedrichsburg. The author of the project of these gates was August Stüler, the court architect of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. On August 23, 1910, Fort Friedrichsburg was excluded from the defensive fortifications of Königsberg and sold to the Imperial Railway. The ramparts were demolished, the ditches of the Friedrichsburg fort were filled up. Most of its structures have been demolished. Railroad tracks were laid across the territory previously occupied by this fort. From the buildings of the fort, only the gate and the barracks at the eastern defensive wall of the southeastern bastion have survived.
Now the Friedrichsburg Gate has been transferred to the Museum of the World Ocean.

Some tiny hatches))

Bridge. This strange design is a spreading mechanism, or rather a lifting one :) The new railway bridge was built in 1926. Its design was swivel, the upper part of the bridge was intended for trains, the lower one for pedestrians and cars. The turning part was 57 meters and weighed 1225 tons, while the bridge could be turned within 2-3 minutes. It was blown up during the retreat of German troops and restored in 1949. The design of the bridge was changed to a lifting one. The height of the bridge is about 50 meters.

The bridge is in such a ... neglected-picturesque state. My friends were even afraid to cross it on rusted metal. And I remembered my home and the stairs on the Embankment))

The views from the bridge are very even!

Maybe piles of some old bridge?

The Cathedral is visible in the distance.

The cat somehow unkindly looks at the guests of the city :)

"Rock garden" in one of the yards :)

Here I am most pleased with the pink "toy" house)

The building on the right is also very interesting.


This is YUI MVD - a police university. Building built ca. 1931, in German times, the labor exchange was located here.

railway gate


1866-1869 The Railway Gate was designed by the architect Ludwig von Aster.
The railway leading to Pillau (now Baltiysk) passed through these gates. After the defensive structures of the city center were removed, a street was laid along the former rampart. Thus, since then, the gate has been hardly noticeable, and rather resembles a tunnel through a road embankment.

There is an unexpected sign on the gate.

Behind the gates is a beautiful park with ponds.

And this is the Ausfal Gate.
The first gates, approximately on the site of the current ones, were built in the twenties of the XVII century, during the construction of a defensive rampart around the city. Later, in 1866, the gate was rebuilt in brick Gothic style. Built in the 19th century, the Ausfal Gate allowed only pedestrians to pass through, and were less significant in relation to the rest of the city gates (as evidenced, for example, by poorer architectural design). The new Ausfal Gate was designed by the architect Ludwig von Aster.

From the very beginning, the gates crashed into the shaft and were actually below ground level. In the 20th century, the only passage of the gate was blocked. Like all other city gates, in 1910 the Ausfal Gate was sold to the city by the military department.
During the war, the Ausfal Gate was converted into a command post for military units. The vast inner spaces of the gate were divided into separate compartments by concrete walls. The passages between the compartments were closed with hermetic protective doors.
After the war, the gate was used as a warehouse, later as a bomb shelter for a nearby police school, and later a sewage collector was located in them.

In 1993, on the upper covering of the gate, which is located flush with the level of the carriageway of Gvardeisky Prospekt, an Orthodox chapel of St. George was built, dedicated to Soviet soldiers who died during the assault on Königsberg.